[REVIEW FOR EXTERNAL] How to expand the video codec/format support in IDL?

QUESTION:

IDLffVideoRead does not seem to be able to read my video file that can be played on my video player application.  Is there a way to expand the video codec/format support in IDL?

DISCUSSION:

If the video file can be played by the VideoLAN organization VLC media player (which makes use of the FFmpeg library) then it may be possible that replacing the IDL version of the FFmpeg library files with an unrestricted version obtained from FFmpeg may allow IDL to read the video file that was previously unreadable by IDL.

NOTE: EXELIS ASSUMES NO RISKS OR LIABILITIES ASSOCIATED WITH ANY SUCH REPLACEMENTS.

--------------
General steps to replace the IDL 8.4.1 FFmpeg DLL files, per the instructions mentioned in the "Replacing the FFmpeg Version" section of the following IDL help page:

    http://www.harrisgeospatial.com/docs/creatingvideo.html

[ Note that although the instructions provided are for Windows, the concepts and similar library file names for replacement are applicable for Linux. ]

1.) For 64-bit Windows, under the C:\ProgramFiles\exelis\idl84\bin\bin.x86_64 directory, located the files indicated (note that for IDL 8.4(.0) the file versions are different than that for IDL 8.4.1, in addition to an extra file for IDL 8.4.1):

avcodec-*.dll
avformat-*.dll
avutil-*.dll
swscale-*.dll

That is for IDL 8.4.1:

avcodec-55.dll
avformat-55.dll
avutil-52.dll
swscale-2.dll
avdevice-55.dll  (<-- Additional file needed to be replaced for IDL8.4.1)

For IDL 8.4 the files are:

avcodec-53.dll
avformat-53.dll
avutil-51.dll
swscale-2.dll

2.) On the FFmpeg web site and find a legacy stable release version of the FFmpeg library that contains compatible versions of DLL files that can be used to replace the above DLLs in the IDL installation. (Per Exelis VIS Technical Support policy, we must leave it up to the customer to locate and obtain the proper 3rd party libraries needed to complete these instructions.)

3.) After obtaining/building the appropriate version FFmpeg library, locate the target DLL files that are needed to replace the ones indicated per the IDL instructions.

4.) Back up the original files by renaming them with a ".orig" at the end of the file names, and then copy the new version files to the idl84\bin\bin.x86_64 directory.

5.) After installing the updated DLL files, see if you can query and also read the target video file.

[ Reviewed for external by JU (19-may-2015) ]